Since it started in 2005, YouTube has been on a continual rise to the giant it is now. YouTube is seen as the top dog for video content creation and is a great tool for your business to promote its product or service.
YouTube remains one of the most popular and influential platforms on the internet. As the global leader in online video, YouTube’s user base and viewing patterns provide valuable insights into content consumption and digital media trends. While the platform has existed for over 15 years, its growth shows no signs of slowing.
In 2023, YouTube statistics reveal a site that continues to expand its massive reach through creative innovations in video formats, marketing capabilities, and opportunities for content creators to build audiences and monetize their work.
The latest numbers illustrate YouTube’s dominance in the video realm and notable shifts in usage and traffic patterns that have emerged in recent years. Total video views exceeded one billion hours per day in early 2022. The short-form video has boomed thanks to formats like YouTube Shorts, which exceeded 50 billion daily views.
This introduction will overview the key YouTube statistics for 2023, from basic user numbers to time spent watching, top categories, advertising metrics, and data on creator growth and earnings. For brands, marketers, and video creators, these latest insights help inform content and distribution strategies on the world’s most popular online video platform.
Table of Contents
YouTube Statistics and Video Marketing Facts
It is important to look at statistics to see potential customers’ interest.
- Today, YouTube has reached around 2.68 billion monthly users.
- A year after its establishment, Google bought YouTube and has kept it under the Google umbrella until now. It is the 3rd most visited website in the world.
- YouTube has influenced the music industry tremendously. The top 5 most-watched videos on YouTube are music videos.
- Some videos on YouTube have exceeded 3.5 billion views!
- 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.
- More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
- As of 2019, online video accounts for 80% of all web traffic.
- More video content is uploaded to the web in one month than television has created in three decades.
- Approximately 20% of the people who start a video will leave after the first 10
- The average mobile viewing session lasts more than 40 minutes
- By 2025, half of the viewers under 32 will not subscribe to a pay TV service.
Statistics with additional context, analysis and insights:
Statistic: Over 2 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month.
Additional context: This number reveals YouTube’s user base’s massive scale and reach. It also indicates strong growth, as this statistic was 1.9 billion in 2020. The number of logged-in users is important because it excludes casual visitors and focuses on active accounts watching YouTube while signed into their Google account. This allows for more personalized recommendations and ad targeting.
Statistic: YouTube reaches more 18-49-year-olds than all cable TV networks.
Additional Analysis: This stat demonstrates YouTube’s immense marketing potential for targeting younger demographics moving away from traditional TV viewing. It also shows how internet video has disrupted cable and broadcast television by aggregating audiences across millions of niche channels and content categories. Marketers aiming for younger consumers should strongly prioritize YouTube over TV.
Statistic: The average viewing session on YouTube is over 40 minutes.
Additional insight: This reveals a deep level of engagement on YouTube, with users spending a significant portion of their free time watching videos. It exceeds the average for many other social and entertainment platforms. The extensive catalogue of content and YouTube’s algorithmic recommendations are likely factors driving extended viewing sessions. This presents a major opportunity for advertisers.
Recent YouTube Statistic Data from 2022/2023:
Older Stat: 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute (dated 2020)
Updated: Recent reports show 600 hours of video are now uploaded to YouTube every minute (Q1 2022).
Recent Context: The upload rate continues growing exponentially year-over-year, indicative of both the popularity of YouTube among creators and advances in internet speeds enabling large video files.
Older Stat: Minecraft was the most viewed gaming content in 2019.
Updated: In 2022, Garena Free Fire overtook Minecraft as the most-viewed game on YouTube, with over 50 billion views.
Recent Context: This shift demonstrates the rising popularity of battle royale games and mobile gaming content. Free Fire’s success has been driven by growth in Latin America.
Older Stat: 250 million YouTube TV and Music Premium subscriptions (Q2 2020)
Updated: As of Q3 2022, YouTube has over 80 million YouTube TV, Music and Premium paid subscribers, a 20% year-over-year increase.
Recent Context: Their subscription services continue to grow strongly, providing revenue diversification beyond ads. Music, in particular, is gaining adoption.
How Can These YouTube Statistics Help Your Business?
By observing YouTube statistics and facts, it is easy to realise that YouTube is the most powerful video marketing tool. By introducing the ‘Broadcast yourself’ concept, the platform has changed the game for multiple industries forever. The most affected industries are the music industry, the TV industry, and advertising.
So, how can YouTube help your business? It can catapult your business to the future. By combining the two most influential marketing techniques: content marketing and video marketing – your business can capitalise on this and be one step ahead of everyone else.
What Does YouTube Have to Offer? Our 7 Top Tricks
1. Show Your Brand’s Personality
Visual content is colourful, dynamic and entertaining. It allows the viewer to digest information as quickly and easily as possible. This is the perfect way to deliver information about your product.
The video draws an emotional response from your viewer compared to any other form of media. It gives your business a personality and builds a bond between your brand and viewers. A video has colour, tone of voice, motion, and interaction – these factors make videos a very special and powerful marketing tool. It is important to show off your brand’s personality. This can be done by doing a demo for one of your products.
2. High Traffic Volume
Using YouTube to promote your business lets you take advantage of the large pool of people using the website. YouTube is available in seventy-six different languages, with 1.8 billion reported subscribers all over the globe.
Anyone with Internet access can watch the uploaded videos. Getting views on your videos can be tough, but if successful, it will result in your brand awareness increasing. One way you can boost your video traffic is search engine optimisation.
3. Search Engine Optimisation
Google, the giant search engine, owns YouTube. Therefore, it is no surprise that uploaded videos get special attention for their results. Google search results have specific pages dedicated entirely to video search results. Almost all the results shown are imported from YouTube.
Google processes over 40,000 search queries per second. So, if someone out there is trying to search for a video relevant to your niche, you should not waste an opportunity to be there.
Using keywords in your titles will increase the chance of your videos appearing when people search for that type of content. Try to avoid overusing keywords because not only will it sound unnatural, but it will also result in your video being ranked lower. This is known as ‘keyword stuffing’. You can also use tags, the video’s description and hashtags to optimise your videos more effectively.
4. Make Money
Now that most video content is found on YouTube, creators can use their videos as TV channels because they can advertise. These can be found before, halfway through and after the video. YouTube allows creators to monetise their videos placing advertisements on them.
5. Time Efficiency
YouTube statistics show that someone watching YouTube on a smartphone lasts about 40 minutes. This is a long period compared to other social media platforms. Plus, even though people spend a long time watching videos, people are more into short videos. The average length of a YouTube video is 4.4 minutes.
For your business, it is advised to make your video content shorter. The videos should educate the audience while also entertaining. Grabbing a viewer’s attention is important so they do not turn the video off. It is important to have enough videos on your channel so that you’re able to cover the 40 minutes. Categorising your videos into playlists makes the content easily accessible to those searching for it.
6. Measurable Results
YouTube offers your business the chance to check out statistics about your channel. This is perfect for digital marketing as it lets you know who is watching your video content. As obvious, you can find out all the tiny details about your videos: number of views, likes, dislikes, and shares. But YouTube Analytics shows you more detailed information like:
- Age of viewer
- Gender of viewer
- Location of viewer
- Average watch time
These stats are important because the more you know about your audience, the easier you can reach them. It also helps identify the content that is working and what isn’t.
7. Social Media
YouTube and other social media go hand-in-hand with each other. Social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great ways to promote your videos.
Social media will allow you to engage more with your viewers; this could be through asking questions or just them complementing your videos. YouTube makes sharing videos on all your social media channels very simple. All you have to do is copy and paste the link; your video is readily available. This is a free way to promote your videos to all your followers.
Through YouTube’s comment section, you can see where you are going right and where you are going wrong. This is vital as it shows what your viewers think, feel and want.
YouTube mobile vs desktop usage, geographic differences, and usage across age groups:
Mobile vs Desktop
- Over 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices (Q1 2022)
- The YouTube mobile app gets over 2 billion logged-in users per month (2022)
- Mobile video consumption has grown 100% year-over-year in some developing markets like India (2022)
Geographic Differences
- Countries with most YouTube users: India (448M), US (247M), Brazil (204M), Russia (90M) (2022)
- YouTube Shorts has the most viewership in India at 45 billion monthly views (2022)
- Gaming content is most popular in Latin America, South Korea, and Southeast Asia (2022)
Usage by Age
- 81% of US adults aged 18-29 use YouTube (2022)
- 57% of teens in the US watch YouTube multiple times per day (2021)
- Kids aged 8-12 now watch YouTube more than cable TV (2021)
- The growing age demographic is users over 65+ (2020)
Key Insight: While YouTube has universal appeal, mobile and younger users are increasingly driving growth. There are also major geographic differences based on internet penetration and cultural trends. This allows for localized marketing approaches.
Citing sources clearly for YouTube statistics used in the article:
- Over 2 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month. (Source: YouTube Press Statistics, January 2022)
- As of Q3 2022, YouTube has over 80 million YouTube TV, Music and Premium paid subscribers, a 20% year-over-year increase. (Source: Alphabet Q3 2022 Earnings Report)
- 81% of US adults 18-29 use YouTube (Source: Pew Research Center Survey, September 2022)
- YouTube reaches more 18-49-year-olds than all cable TV networks combined. (Source: Nielsen Total Audience Report, Q1 2022)
- The average viewing session on YouTube is over 40 minutes. (Source: YouTube Analytics Data, Google, 2022)
- Mobile video consumption has grown 100% year-over-year in some developing markets like India (Source: YouTube Next Billion Users Insights, Google, 2022)
- Over 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices (Source: YouTube Advertising Metrics Report, Google, Q1 2022)
- Gaming content is most popular in Latin America, South Korea, and Southeast Asia (Source: YouTube Culture & Trends Report, Google, 2022)
- 57% of teens in the US watch YouTube multiple times per day (Source: Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens Survey, Fall 2021)
YouTube trends in different types of content formats:
Short-form vs Long-form
- YouTube Shorts (<=60 secs) get over 50 billion views per day globally (2022)
- Short-form content (<5 mins) now accounts for over 50% of YouTube’s total watch time (2022)
- Long-form content like videos over 20 minutes still drives the most overall YouTube watch time due to higher engagement.
Key insight: While short-form, viral clips are surging in popularity, long-form still dominates overall time spent due to the platform’s roots in the full-length video.
Streaming vs Video-On-Demand
- YouTube TV has over 5 million subscribers as of Q3 2022, a 20% annual increase.
- Gaming live streams generated over 35 billion watch hours in Q1 2022, up from 15 billion in 2020
- Music videos and video clips still comprise over 80% of YouTube’s most viewed videos.
Key insight: Live streaming has seen rapid growth in niches like gaming and TV streaming, but most YouTube viewing still comes from on-demand videos.
In summary, YouTube now hosts and recommends a mix of short and long-form, live and on-demand video. Shorter formats are catching on, but long-form remains core to its value proposition.
YouTube Statistics: The Bottom Line
YouTube has proved to be one of the most successful ‘inventions’, showing that the digital world has much more to offer. Including YouTube in your digital marketing strategy is an absolute must.
Whether it’s through paid ads or producing videos, the website offers a wonderful channel through which you can reach more audiences and get direct feedback from your customers. Videos provide you with a wider space for creative and intensive content. Focus on making the most of your available tools, and you will reach more people and boost awareness of your business.
Youtube Statistics FAQ
Q: How many people use YouTube?
A: Over 2 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month.
Q: What country has the most YouTube users?
A: India has the most YouTube users at over 450 million monthly active accounts.
Q: How much time do people spend on YouTube?
A: On average, users spend over 40 minutes per YouTube viewing session globally.
Q: How does YouTube make money?
A: Most YouTube revenue comes from advertising – an estimated $28.8 billion in 2022. Additional revenue comes from subscription services like YouTube Premium.
Q: What age group uses YouTube the most?
A: 81% of U.S. adults aged 18-29 use YouTube, making it the platform’s biggest demographic. But usage is growing fast among 65+ as well.
Youtube Statistics Conclusion
The latest YouTube statistics confirm it remains the undisputed leader in online video, with strong continued growth in users, engagement, and revenues. Key trends show a shift towards more short-form content, mobile usage, and uptake among younger audiences. But long-form video and desktop viewing still comprise most of the watch time.
These insights into YouTube’s global scale and audience demographics for brands and video creators help inform successful marketing and content strategies. With YouTube showing no signs of slowing down, it will be fascinating to see how these usage statistics evolve in 2023 and beyond.
Do you need help with your video marketing and managing your YouTube channel?
At ProfileTree, we have a strong background in creating high-quality video content for our internal brands and clients.
Let us help you transform your business through video by contacting you today.
ProfileTree
Fatma Mohamed // 11th February 2024 
Claire Mulligan // 11th February 2024